MIDDLETOWN — At dawn, with a glowing, nearly full moon sinking in the western sky and the yet-to-appear sun faintly illuminating the eastern horizon, the wild turkeys begin to stir.

MIDDLETOWN — At dawn, with a glowing, nearly full moon sinking in the western sky and the yet-to-appear sun faintly illuminating the eastern horizon, the wild turkeys begin to stir.

They have spent the night, as usual, roosting in the limbs of a group of maple trees that, one week before Thanksgiving, stand bare of all their leaves. Their hefty, dark bodies silhouetted against the cloudless sky, the turkeys rouse themselves and drop to the ground one by one.

Soon, nearly 40 have gathered around a stone wall in this semi-rural neighborhood, the male toms spreading their feathers and gobbling loudly in a showy display. When the sun has risen, a “rafter” of turkeys (yes, that’s the proper term) walks single file into a subdivision nearby.

She looks forward to their regular visit and often has a treat for them. The turkeys break into a run, about a dozen quickly arriving in her spacious yard.

“Here they come!” she says. “It’s amazing.”

[turkey-video]

Wild turkeys were virtually extinct in Rhode Island not so long ago. These days, however, the birds are commonly seen across the state — comfortably congregating in backyards, meadows, even beside highways, and occasionally hopping atop cars and rooftops.

If you were a turkey with Thanksgiving approaching, think wild. While farm-raised fowl are fated for a different kind of gobbling on the holiday, wild turkeys pretty much have a free pass in autumn in Rhode Island.

That’s because the fall hunting season is restricted to archery, resulting in only a few being killed — just five a year ago, according to wildlife officials.

State officials regard their decades-long efforts to restore the population of wild turkeys a success while cautiously watching a dip in their overall numbers the past couple of years.

After all, he’s been tackling turkey projects since joining the DEM in 1992, when he took over initiatives begun in 1980.

The effort is devoted to the Eastern Wild Turkey, one of five sub-species in the United States and the one native to Rhode Island. Historically, the most widely distributed and abundant, they also tend to grow to be the largest.

Because the turkeys were here when the Pilgrims enjoyed their first feast in 1621, says Tefft, it was particularly disheartening that they were pushed to extinction in New England in the 1800s due to hunting and deforestation for agriculture.

“They were an important source of food for our first colonists. It’s recognized at Thanksgiving, our biggest holiday,” Tefft says. “Aside from the history, we certainly don’t want to lose our native species. The turkey is a beautiful and majestic bird. They are pretty large and charismatic.”

Rhode Island was late to restoration efforts. In the 1950s, other states brought in Eastern turkeys from places where they remained abundant. The first transplant operation in Rhode Island, however, didn’t take place until 1980 when 29 birds were released in Exeter.

Nothing else was done for another 10 years or so, although turkeys reintroduced in Connecticut and Massachusetts could have found their way to Rhode Island, Tefft says.

But because the population had only grown modestly by the time he arrived, Tefft arranged to bring in more birds from New York and Pennsylvania for several years in a row in the mid-1990s. In all, 137 birds were released into Scituate, West Greenwich, Burrillville, Tiverton and Little Compton.

The effort paid off. The population, after growing only modestly from near-zero to about 1,000 in 1993, took wing. It soared to 3,000 by 1996 and doubled to 6,000 by 2002.

The estimates are based on surveys by staff and reports that the DEM solicits from the public every year.

“I get hundreds of reports every year,” says Tefft, who is deeply appreciative of people who care enough to count how many poults (baby turkeys) they’ve seen.

The numbers help determine the level of brood production by hens. Surveyors also estimate populations by counting gobbler calls, the sounds made by male turkeys.

The population boom has allowed for an approximately month-long shotgun hunting season in the spring. Only males may be taken, with females protected for reproduction. Hunters are limited to one bird each spring. The fall archery season, from October to November, also is limited to one bird, either male or female, per hunter.

“The take is relatively low,” says Tefft.

The harvest topped 200 turkeys for most years from 2006 to 2009. But it dropped to 151 in 2011 and 104 in 2012, according to the latest annual wild turkey report Tefft puts together for the DEM.

That decline mirrored a drop in the overall population to about 3,000 birds. Meanwhile, the number of observed juveniles per adult has been below average for five of the last seven years.

Tefft says it’s unclear what’s causing the population decline. Weather could be factor. Since poults are vulnerable to exposure, wet and cold springs “can wreak havoc with brood productions,” he says.

Predators can take a major toll, too, especially with the rise of coyote populations in recent years.

“We have a landscape which is perfect for the proliferation of generalist predators like coyotes, foxes, and birds of prey,” Tefft says

The report highlights another possible problem — an apparent shift in turkey populations away from rural and wild areas and into cities and suburbs. That may help explain why more people are seeing them in their yards and neighborhoods.

“There is some cause for concern that these areas are becoming attractive to turkeys because of the feeding activities carried out by a well-meaning public causing a redistribution of the population away from other suitable habitats,” the report notes.

“They are not doing the turkeys any favors,” Tefft says.

Turkeys become habituated to being fed, and that can result in them feeling too comfortable, even aggressive around children and adults, he adds.

The Middletown flock, for example, became a nuisance a few years ago and wildlife officials even had to euthanize some of the birds, he says.

But The Journal readers who responded to a reporter’s query recently said they enjoyed having wild turkeys around.

What’s so appealing about a big bird with a featherless head? About males whose throats and necks are covered in wattles and whose beaks are adorned with fleshy growths called snoods?

None other than Benjamin Franklin, who disliked the choice of the bald eagle as America’s national symbol, described the turkey as “much more respectable bird” and a “bird of courage.” A renowned Kentucky bourbon maker prominently displays an image of the bird on its labels and calls itself Wild Turkey.

“People think they are really ugly. I don’t think they are ugly,” says Barbara DiMarco, the Middletown resident. “They’re just so unique and so smart.”

Despite having a reputation for being fat, slow and unable to fly, wild turkeys are relatively slim and muscular and can actually fly and run fairly well. Adult males, called toms or gobblers, can put on quite a display.

“They have this amazing ability to not only fan out those beautiful feathers, but they will pull in their head to their body and literally cut off the circulation to their heads so their head turns bright blue and red. Apparently, that’s very sexy looking,” says Kimberly Calcagno, refuge manager for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

On their turf, “They’ll puff up and fan out their tails and rattle their wings, almost like a little dance floor. He’s basically trying to say, ‘Look how sexy I am and look at the good food nearby. Don’t you want to live in my territory?”

Wild turkeys are commonly seen on Audubon properties, and for Thanksgiving, Calcagno has been giving presentations for children, dispelling myths and displaying samples of their remarkably large feathers.

The DiMarcos certainly have appreciated seeing turkeys since moving into their house on the eastern side of Middletown, near farms and large yards.

“They are just part of life here,” Barbara DiMarco says

On this November morning, several females are the first to arrive at their house. The family pug, Poochie, is calm around the birds but keeps a safe distance away.

“They tolerate each other,” says Bill DiMarco.

“Where are the boys?” his wife asks aloud.

A few moments later, she recognizes the males headed her way.

“There are the Five Guys,” she says, using her nickname for the males that she says always stick together. “I know my turkeys.”

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TURKEY FILE: THE EASTERN WILD

An adult male,

called a tom or gobbler, ranges from 16 to 26 pounds.

An adult female, called a hen, is smaller and weighs from 7 to 10 pounds.

A young male turkey is called a jake, and a young female is a jenny. Newly hatched birds are called poults.

Despite their size, they can run up to 25 mph and fly up to 35 mph.

It’s hard to sneak up on a turkey because their vision is almost 360 degrees. They have good hearing but a poor sense of smell.

They make purring sounds when feeding, cluck to communicate to one another and make a loud “putt” sound as a warning. Toms gobble to attract females.